JAMB To Build 5,000 Capacity CBT Centre In Ogun

The Registrar of the Joint Admissions Matriculation Board, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, has said that the Computer Based Test Centre being built in Abeokuta, will ease the pressure on candidates sitting for the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examinations in Ogun, Lagos and other Southwest States.

He said this shortly after the Governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, laid the foundation of the building estimated to gulp N1bn, at Oke Mosan, Abeokuta.

When completed, the building, which will be funded by the JAMB and the National Communications Commission, would seat 5,000 candidates.

Oloyede explained that 36 per cent of the candidates who register and sit for the UTME every year come from Ogun (17 per cent) and Lagos states (19 per cent) respectively, hence the need to have a mega CBT centre in Abeokuta that would cater for the population.

He said this would make the process of registration and conduct of the examination seamless for the candidates. The JAMB registrar, who said the centre would be a10-storey building, added that it would sit 15,000 candidates per day.

He said, “The Federal Government directed that the NCC should construct two CBT centres in the North and Southern parts of Nigeria. I applied for a centre for Ogun State and it was granted. The Ogun State Government graciously allocated this expanse of land to JAMB.

“Our intention is to have a mega CBT centre in Lagos State but considering the space we have here, we went back to the drawing board and decided that it should be sited in Abeokuta. It will serve the entire South-West states.”

He further stated that similar centres were being constructed in Bauchi (Bauchi State) and Owerri (Imo State), among others.

Oloyede, who commended Amosun for allocating the land to JAMB for the centre, also lauded the recent return of the post-UTME screening test to the universities by the Federal Ministry of Education.

He said this “is the standard practice even in the United Kingdom and other countries.”